BRIAN SANTO: I'm Brian Santo, EETimeseditor in chief, and you're listening to EETimes on Air. This is your briefingfor the week ending July 19th.
BRIAN SANTO：我是EETimes总编辑Brian Santo，你正在收听的是EETimes全球联播。以下是截至7月19日的一周新闻要点。
This week…
本周…
Artificial intelligence is a vastly complexmarket. There’s a fierce competition among hardware vendors to be the bestplatform for AI applications. But first, you have to know what it means to be“the best.” This week, analyst Karl Freund from Moor Insights talks to us aboutthe latest AI benchmarks.
人工智能是一个非常复杂的市场。硬件供应商之间的竞争异常激烈，竞相角逐最好的AI应用平台。但首先，你必须知道“最好”是指什么。本周，Moor Insights分析师Karl Freund向我们介绍了最新的AI基准测试。
Researchers are re-imagining what –fundamentally – a vehicle is. One company just put everything other than thechassis – literally everything – entirely inside the wheels. We’ll explore thatand other proposals.
研究人员在重新想象：从根本上说车是什么。有一家公司将所有东西都放在车轮内，除底盘外。我们将探讨这个想法以及其他方案。
And it’s the 50th anniversary of the Apollo11 space mission – the first time people set foot on the moon. This week welook back – and also look forward to going back to the moon.
接下来是阿波罗11号太空飞行50周年，纪念人类第一次踏上月球。本周我们不但回顾过去，也展望未来，期待着重返月球。
GEORGE LEOPOLD "The dust is a majorproblem. It sticks to everything. It's highly abrasive material. It gets into everything.I think on the first lunar landing it became a big problem, so you have to finda way to manage that before we can go back there."
GEORGELEOPOLD “灰尘是一个主要问题，它会附着到任何东西上。它是高度磨蚀的材料，会进入任何东西内。我认为在第一次登月时它就是一个大问题，所以在我们能够返回月球之前必须找到一种办法来控制它。“
BRIAN SANTO: We’ll get back the moon in amoment.
BRIANSANTO：我们稍后就会返回月球(话题)。
First up: Artificial intelligence is goingto be the next big – no, ginormous – market for computer chips. There’s fiercecompetition among IC vendors to design platforms that can host various AIapplications. Naturally, each wants to prove their chips are the best, and forthat – they need benchmarks. There’s a new set called M-L PERF. EE Times EditorRick Merritt talks to analyst Karl Freund, who wrote the story for us about thenew benchmarks.
首先，人工智能将成为计算机芯片的下一个大市场，不是“大”，而是“巨大”。 IC供应商们正在激烈竞争，都在设计可以支持各种AI应用的平台。当然，每家公司都想证明他们的芯片是最好的，为此就需要基准测试。有一个新的基准测试称为M-L PERF。EE Times编辑Rick Merritt与分析师Karl Freund就此进行了交谈，后者为我们撰写了有关这个新基准测试的文章。
以下内容是英文原稿，Enjoy!
RICK MERRITT: Thanks for making some timetoday, and thanks last week for covering for us the new results that came outof M-L PERF. So what did we learn about kind of who's in the lead of this AIrace from those results?
KARL FREUND: I think what we learned fromthe benchmarks is that both Google and Nvidia have just some incrediblehardware and have made significant investments in software. A lot of theperformance improvements actually came from the software innovations in tuningand really focusing on the AI algorithms, and so they're both able to achievesome very, very impressive speed ups with their hardware GPUs in the case ofNvidia and the TPU in the case of Google.
RICK MERRITT: Very good. Now, we both knowthat there's dozens of companies that are coming out with AI trainingaccelerators. A lot of them are startups. Why are none of them yet putting outany results?
KARL FREUND: That's a great question, Rick.You know, I think the anticipation of the 40-some startups around the worldthat are all building hardware to accelerate artificial intelligence,expectations are set very high by the companies and by the industry. And thoseexpectations are difficult to meet. So there's really not a lot of hardwareavailable today from these startups. And what is available is primarily forinference, the actually processing of training neural networks. Not thedevelopment of the neural networks themselves, a process called training.
In the realm of training, there's reallyone two players: Nvidia and Google. Intel hopefully will have a competitiveproduct by the end of this year. And the training market is right now the largestmarket. But in the long term, the inference market is probably going to be thebigger market opportunity.
RICK MERRITT: All right. Good enough. Sowhat's the milestone here, Karl?
KARL FREUND: Well actually, I think what'snext is going to be the inference benchmarks. They have not been published yetby any of the players, and I think that is an opportunity for the startups andlarge companies, Qualcomm and Intel, to be able to demonstrate their prowess ininference processing.
I would also note that the cost of thetraining is still quite high. The systems that ran these benchmarks are massivesupercomputers. I estimate the Nvidia supercomputer that ran this benchmark isprobably close to about a $40 million US list price. So training is still veryexpensive, costs have got to come down, and the second thing is that wehopefully will see some inference benchmarks that we can use to assess thestartups' potential in penetrating that market.
RICK MERRITT: All right. Karl Freund,analyst for AI, with more insights and strategy. Thanks so much for being onEETimes On Air.
BRIAN SANTO: Innovation in the automotiveindustry is hardly confined to electric vehicles or autonomous vehicles. EETimes has come across several wild new proposals for how to build a car in thefuture. International editor Junko Yoshida talked with our London correspondentNitin Dahad about it.
JUNKO YOSHIDA: Nitin, you recently reportedon an Israeli startup who has developed a modular EV platform you said.Presumably all the components previously found under the hood are now in thewheel, as you wrote. What does that entail? Can you explain?
NITIN DAHAD: Yes, Junko. I had spoken toDaniel Barel, co-founder of the Israeli startup REE, which has just come out ofstealth mode with a wheel design that integrates the motor, steering,suspension, drive train, sensing, electronics, rim and tire all in the wheel.That's quite a mouthful. But they do claim to have put all of that into thewheel.
JUNKO YOSHIDA: Wow. All right, so that's alot. So take me from the top. What sort of advantages will such a platformbring to car OEMs and Tier Ones?
NITIN DAHAD: It’s quite interesting,actually. I just attended an intelligent mobility conference in London, whereBenny Daniel, VP with Frost & Sullivan, said the existing E&Earchitecture in cars is really left wanting. And he implied that conventionalplatforms are outdated. He said the direction of the industry is actually askateboard platform, one which is clearly adopted by Tesla. He said that by2025, thirteen OEM brands will launch battery/electric vehicles on a skateboardplatform.
JUNKO YOSHIDA: Just for our listeners, canyou explain what “skateboard platform” means?
NITIN DAHAD: Actually even I found it verydifficult to understand when I first read it in the REE press release when theysent it to me. But I think it's essentially what it says. It's a skateboard.And this was sort of invented by GM back in 2002. What you've got you is, theplatform is on what looks like a skateboard. And then what REE have done isactually put everything for the car into the wheel.
JUNKO YOSHIDA: So, you said that Tesla isusing a skateboard platform. What they're doing is different from what REE ispitching here, right? Can you tell me the difference?
NITIN DAHAD: The difference is theskateboard platform that GM advocated is basically saying, let's make it aclean platform where everything can be built on the platform and everything abovecan be a space. But I think a lot of companies are using some for of thatplatform, and Tesla is obviously using that. But if you look at the Tesla, theydo use a lot of the space quite effectively above that platform. And what REEis actually doing is integrating everything into the wheel, so that the wholeauto platform is contained within the skateboard, and then that opens up theflexibility for OEMs to use that single platform to create everything on top,from robotaxis to cars to trucks.
JUNKO YOSHIDA: Oh, I see. So that'sessentially making it as a “universal platform,” as you wrote.
NITIN DAHAD: Correct.
JUNKO YOSHIDA: All right. So as good as itsounds, though, I'm a bit of a skeptic here because I wonder... the OEMs,traditional OEMs, may resist this idea because they have invested so much forthe current automotive design. We're talking about changing the architecture interms of the wiring and cabling they used to do to this new skateboard. Plus,the OEMs already have a production, well-oiled production lines, that aredesigned for the mass production of the conventional cars. So is REE, thisstartup, are they ready to respond to the potential resistance from OEMs?
NITIN DAHAD: Well, yes, you would haveobviously a lot of resistance. There's a lot of existing manufacturinginfrastructure. But if you think about it, if it's eliminating-- I think one ofthe aspects you said was about all the cabling and infrastructure-- if thewheel is really getting rid of all of that, then they'll actually probablywelcome that. But I'll actually say, any new disruptive technology, there'sgoing to be resistance, but you just need a small handful of early adopters tosee what's possible and get it out there in the market.
If it takes off and it can demonstratesignificant cost savings and shorter time to deliver that return on investment,then there might be gradual adoption. And I think that happens-- I mean, Iremember (I don't want to keep on) when I was involved with a startup, we weredisruptive, but eventually it takes off.
JUNKO YOSHIDA: So cut to the chase. When willthe new platform be ready?
NITIN DAHAD: The CEO told us they willpresent early prototypes to partners during 2019, but he wasn't really morespecific than that. They're still deciding on what market to address first,because obviously if it's a universal framework, it can go for anything. As wesaid, from trucks to robotaxis to cars. But I don't think cars will be theirfirst market. As you said, there's going to be resistance. So it will beprobably the low-speed vehicles and commercial vehicles which are thelow-hanging fruit. And that’s what he said they'll probably target first.
JUNKO YOSHIDA: All right, very good. Thankyou so much, Nitin.
NITIN DAHAD: Thank you.
BRIAN SANTO: This Saturday, July 20th, willbe the 50th anniversary of the first step taken on the moon. We’ve got a set ofstories on the website to commemorate the event, including a series we did tomark the 40th anniversary, along with several brand new articles, including afew by George Leopold, who is not only a long-time EE Times editor, but is alsoan authority on the NASA space program. George has authored a book on one ofAmerica’s great astronauts, Gus Grissom, who participated in the Apollo,Gemini, and Mercury programs. Welcome back to the podcast, George.
GEORGE LEOPOLD: Hey, Brian, good to be backwith you.
BRIAN SANTO: I have a really clear memoryfrom 50 years ago. My mom and dad getting me out of bed and dragging medownstairs to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. As sleepy as I was, it wasincredibly exciting. And I think every kid alive in the 1960s consideredbecoming an astronaut. How about you? What are your memories from back then?
GEORGE LEOPOLD: Well, like a lot of folksmy age, my generation, we sort of remember that night as magical. It was... thenight of July 20th was like Christmas Eve. Two guys coming... fuzzy figurescoming down that ladder. It was unforgettable. I guess even at a young age, yousort of sensed that this was something historic, something that perhaps for thefirst time in a long time sort of pulled the whole planet together. And we didit; it wasn't just the Americans, but we all did it. So it was a very magicalthing, and a bit ephemeral but nevertheless I think it was significant. Andmaybe those images alone made that $180 billion in 2019 dollars worth theeffort.
BRIAN SANTO: Ten years ago, EE Times ran aspecial report, looking back on Apollo 11 on the 40th anniversary. Now we’vere-posted that on the website by the way – on EETimes.com. You contributed tothat report, and you were already pretty prepared for it, right?
GEORGE LEOPOLD: Yeah, 10 years ago we did aspecial report, the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. One of the people weinterviewed, Allen Bean, said the reason everybody showed up for the 40thanniversary was that he checked the actuarial tables and realized that a lot ofthese guys wouldn't be here for the 50th. And unfortunately, he was right.There are only a few of the people who walked on the moon or saw the wholecircle of the Earth alive today. So, luckily, too, the Apollo 11 astronauts--the crew of the first moon landing-- are here. Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin
We're profiling the great Mike Collins inEETimes this week. He's one of my favorites. His conclusion was that, What didthis all mean? It was about leaving. It was about leaving the Earth for thefirst time and looking back and seeing the whole Earth and realizing what wehave down here. So I think it changed everybody's perspective. And of coursethe famous "Earthrise" photograph and so forth. It changed our wholeview of where we fit in the universe. So again, that alone probably made thewhole thing worth it.
BRIAN SANTO: So what’s changed in the 10years since then?
GEORGE LEOPOLD: Well, I guess, you know, inthe last 10 years since we took a look at this, the 40th anniversary to the50th anniversary of Apollo 11, we've seen the whole commercial space industrygrow up. If we're going to get back to the moon, it's probably going to be anindustry-NASA effort, with the industry guys supplying most of the hardware andNASA sort of looking over their shoulder and making sure the software works andgetting everything right. Because everything has got to be right. This is adangerous, high-risk business. Space is unforgiving.
At some point, Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos orone of these guys is going to have an accident. Someone's going to get killed,and then we'll find out how resilient their business model is. But that's justthe nature of space travel.
BRIAN SANTO: If we might be going back tothe moon, I have to bring this up, because it’s new information to me. I alwaysknew that without an atmosphere for protection, radiation would be a seriousproblem. And recently we discovered on the plus side, there might be ice tomine on the moon, a source of oxygen to breathe and hydrogen for fuel. But whatI just learned is that moondust is incredibly vicious, harsh stuff. It’s waytougher to go back to the moon than I ever realized. Way many more challenges.Is this any more involved an effort than, say, going to Mars or asteroidmining?
GEORGE LEOPOLD: Yeah, if we go back to themoon, half the problem is finding a way to get back. Right now we don't have away to get back, but they're talking a lot about it. But we'll see if any ofthat pans out. But one of the big problems, as you point out, is yeah, the dustis a major problem. It sticks to everything, it's highly abrasive material, itgets into everything. I think on the first lunar landing they were gettingmoondust in the connections between their suits and their gloves, and it becamea big problem. So you have to find a way to manage that before we can go backthere and do whatever we're going to do on the moon in terms of getting at thewater that you could use as fuel to go to Mars or out to an asteroid, somethinglike that.
I asked the writer Homer Hickham, who maybesome of the listeners knows from "October Sky" about the asteroidmining. He was of course a miner's son in West Virginia, and he said he lookedat the board of directors of some of these companies, startups, that areproposing asteroid mining, and he said they didn't have any miners on theirboard of directors. So they need to focus in on the details here to get itright.
BRIAN SANTO: Okay, last question: Are youdoing anything to celebrate on July 20th?
GEORGE LEOPOLD: Well, on July 20th I willbe at Purdue University, the alma mater of the subject of my biography, GusGrissom, as well of course as the alma mater of the first man on the moon, NeilArmstrong. The engineering building at Purdue University is named for NeilArmstrong. There's a statue of his out in front. They're obviously, and rightlyso, quite proud of him, and also the last man on the moon, Gene Cernan, is alsoa moonwalker and a Purdue graduate. So I think Purdue has more astronauts thanany other... has produced more astronauts than any other university. So they'requite proud of their tradition. And as they say at Purdue, "boilerup."
BRIAN SANTO: Okay. That was George Leopold,EE Times editor and author of the book, “Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Lifeand Times of Gus Grissom.” It’s a great read. Available wherever fine books aresold.
So have you had your fill of nostalgia yet?The answer is no, you have not.
Another milestone in space explorationfield happened 44 years ago this week. On July 17th, 1975, Apollo 18 and Soyuz19 docked together, the first time two vessels from two different countries metin space.
Also on July 17th, this time way back in1850, astronomers at the Harvard Observatory snapped the first photograph of astar. It was taken through the Great Refractor, one of the two most powerfultelescopes on Earth at the time; it had a 20-foot-long mahogany veneer tubewith a lens 15 inches in diameter. The photo – technically a daguerreotype – wasof the star Vega, the second brightest star visible in the northern hemisphere.
On July 18, 1968, Robert Noyce, Andy Groveand Gordon Moore incorporated a company. They smooshed together the words"integrated" and "electronics" to create the company’s name.
I interviewed Bob Noyce in 1988 when he wasnamed the chairman of Sematech. Sematech is consortium of US chip vendors andUS fab equipment suppliers dedicated to researching and developing newmanufacturing technologies. It was then only a year old. It was a response tothe growing sophistication and success of rival Japanese companies. At thetime, there was a lot of consternation about that. I asked Noyce about the threatof foreign competition. His answer was: you do everything you can to remain competitiveyourself, and if everyone helps to make the pie bigger, what's the problem withcompetition?
I wonder how many people would agree withthat today.
Well, that’s your Weekly Briefing for theweek ending July 19th.
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